It would take nearly $9 million to bring St. John the Baptist Parish's public housing units up to the current standard of living, according to a recent physical needs assessment. The assessment, performed at each of the housing authority's four public housing developments in Edgard, Garyville, LaPlace and Reserve, found "the overall conditions of all four properties are poor and all of the properties are in similar states of degradation."

Board members initiated the assessment to determine what work needed to be done on the authority's nearly 300 units and also to get a handle on why the authority's water bill was so high.

"We knew we needed to know what we were working with," board Chairwoman Iona Holloway said.

The visual assessment of St. John's units, performed by Meyer Engineers, found the exteriors of the buildings deteriorating with peeling paint, rotting wood, missing bricks, damaged trim work and damaged soffit panels.

"The steel stairs at the four-plex units are rusting and have created a hazardous situation," according to the assessment.

Inside the units, it found the walls "are in terrible condition, they have numerous poorly constructed patches, holes and damaged areas." The electrical wiring in the units is outdated and in need of replacement and "switches and outlets appear to overheat thereby creating a potential fire hazard."

At the LaPlace development, the report pointed out that "many of the light switches appear melted because of the wiring." At all of the developments, smoke detectors needed new batteries or were missing altogether.

The report also provided clues as to why the authority earlier this year ran up a $170,000 water bill. Holloway said the authority has been paying arrears to the parish on the water bill and is almost caught up.

"It showed a leak, a leak, a leak," Holloway said.

According to the report, most of the bathroom fixtures in the authority's units are leaking, creating wet environments for mold and mildew growth.

In Reserve, "most of the faucets are leaking pencil thin streams of water, contributing to the large water bills the SJHA is experiencing," the assessment found.

It also found overall the bathrooms are in "very poor condition," with cracks in the shower and bath tiles and wall hung lavatories that are falling off the walls.

Holloway said she was surprised by the bad condition of the units..

"You see the outside but until you see the inside... It really shocked me," she said.

Holloway said the problems are too numerous to be tackled all at once.

"We want to attack it but we want to attack it on different fronts," she said. "I know we can't go into it all the way. We need to see what's the worst scenario and fix what we can fix."

Holloway said the next step is for authority officials to prioritize the projects.

"Especially in the bathrooms, where the water is leaking, we need to get those fixed," she said. "We really need to sit down and see what needs to be done."

But with very little money available, Holloway said it will likely be years before everything in the assessment can be addressed.

"Once we prioritize we have to submit the list to HUD and see if they will approve it, because we're still operating on a Zero threshold," she said.

The "Zero threshold" means the agency, which has been deemed troubled by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, must get the federal agency to sign off on any expenditures before it will release money to the St. John authority.

"It will be years before we can really sink our teeth into it," Holloway said. "It's going to be baby steps. We're going to fix the immediate needs. We can't take a big bite out of it."